Airplane Crash: Suicide Threat, Frantic Phone Call, Fireball

By Susan Larson and Greg Hambrick

We have published a supplement to this story with information and resources to help the community. Read it here: Suicide Prevention and Survivor Healing

A panicked call from a fiancée on July 22 alerted law enforcement to a potentially suicidal pilot preparing for take-off at Shannon Airport. She had apparently found a note and rushed to the airport.

Edwin Gordon Hassle, 22, died in a crash within minutes of taking off in a flight school plane. Hassle was a licensed pilot and the only person in the plane when it reportedly flew high then dropped directly to the ground. Transcripts of the 9-1-1 call and the notes from Spotsylvania Sheriff's officers first on the scene at Shannon Airport were obtained by Patch through a Freedom of Information Act request.


At the time of the incident, Virginia State Police were looking into whether or not it was a suicide, Sgt. F. L. Tyler said.  "The state police have filed paperwork with the FAA and NTSB, and it can take six months or longer for them to issue the finalized report," Sgt. Tyler said.


Officers were dispatched to the airport at about 6:17 p.m. July 22 when a woman identified on the report as the victim’s fiancée called police saying Hassle had left a note and was planning to crash the plane.


The fiancée is recorded on the 9-1-1 report as asking Hassle, still on the ground in the plane, what he is doing.  He said he was going to practice. The female yelled, “Stop it, stop it; please stop.” The line is then disconnected.


Officer Matthew Green arrived on the scene and observed the plane airborne – “[the plane] appeared to have just left the runway,” he wrote in his report.  He spoke with the fiancée, who reportedly told him Hassle had been drinking.  The fiancée was escorted to a detective’s vehicle and “removed from the immediate area.”


According to Green, a flight instructor said Hassel appeared happy when he signed out the plane. Hassle reportedly told the instructor that he was going to do pattern work and checked the weather.


Police and flight school personnel watched as Hassle flew the plane toward the city then circled back towards the airport.  “He is really low like he is going to crash it.  The flight is totally erratic,” an officer said on the transcript.


Officer Brandon Handy also responded to Shannon airport. According to his report, he began scanning the sky as he approached the runway on foot.


“I heard the plane above me as the pilot accelerated and pointed the nose of the plane straight down," he wrote. "I spotted the plane heading prop first towards the ground at a high rate of speed. I began to run toward the area of where I expected the plane to make impact with the ground and notified Deputy Green and Deputy Wright that the plane was coming down near their location. The plane impacted the ground about 500 yards from my location and about 250 yards from, Deputies Green and Wright. The plane erupted in a fireball that quickly dissipated. I approached the crash scene on foot and found no signs of life. I then assisted with Deputy Green and Deputy Wright in clearing the area of spectators and on-lookers.”


The plane crashed at the end of a runway next to an open corn field, the report indicates.  The Cessna 172M fixed-wing, single-engine plane belonged to the flight school.


The fiancée told law enforcement Hassle had attempted suicide in the past – about two months earlier.

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